Ziva Wouldn't
by thebigianthead
Summary: Just me thinking about Ziva leaving the United States and NCIS. Takes place after season 11 episode 2 "Past, Present, and Future."


Title: Ziva Wouldn't

Summary: Just me thinking about Ziva leaving the United States and NCIS. Takes place after season 11 episode 2 "Past, Present, and Future."

Rating: K+

Warning: Spoilers for previous season's episodes. Not a lot, but some.

Disclaimer: I own nothing NCIS. Just borrowing the characters for a bit.

Admission: I'm lousy at summaries and even worse at story titles. Sorry.

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It had been a lousy three weeks. Tom Morrow was injured, others killed, Tobias shot, agents targeted and when the dust settled, the MCRT was still down a team member.

"You wanted to see me, Director?"

Leon Vance shuffled some papers on his desk, glanced up at Jethro Gibbs and then grabbed a file folder. The senior supervisory senior field agent and leader of the major case response team hadn't knocked first, but he was getting better about that. He stood respectfully in front of the desk, trying to be patient while his boss finished what he was doing. To Gibbs it looked like the man was stalling a little, maybe trying to gather his thoughts.

Almost a full minute passed before the blue folder dropped on the desk and he spoke.

"I never imagined Clayton dying would work out for us, Gibbs."

Gibbs looked curiously at Vance, who had lost a friend when the car bomb exploded. He didn't know what Vance was getting at, only that it didn't have anything to do with the new SecNav, Sarah Porter. Gibbs hadn't liked the way the man had been taken in by Sean Lathem, but he did appreciate the way he'd convincingly lied about the safe house location. Sometimes Jarvis had interfered and Gibbs still winced when he thought about DiNozzo's kill Cade assignment, but other times he'd been darn helpful and because of that, Gibbs felt for Vance. Thinking the man wanted to share a little, he plopped down into the chair in front of the desk without an invitation and waited. It didn't take long for Vance to explain.

"None of the citizenship and special agent papers are linked to us... to me."

Gibbs sighed, "Ziva."

With a nod, Vance continued.

"Her path to naturalization skated past all the requirements and time-table of permanent residency status."

"Almost eight years in the US counted for something," Gibbs added.

"Her time outside the country when I broke up your team and when you left her in Israel should have counted against her, but it never did. Jarvis pulled some serious strings for her."

Gibbs knew what Vance was saying. Ziva had been given special treatment both for citizenship and NCIS special agent employment and she had thrown it back in their faces. He didn't fault her for it, not really, but he understood the difficult position Vance could have been in if his name had been on any of the documents. Jarvis had made sure the NCIS Director was in the clear.

Vance pulled a couple of papers from the blue folder he'd been looking at earlier and handed them to Gibbs.

"It started when Parsons was digging. I thought it would end there, but SecNav is looking at NCIS personnel decisions. Mine and Shepard's. Morrow's maybe too. I don't know for sure."

"Decisions made by Davenport too?"

Gibbs figured if she was looking into Jenny's time as Director, then the other former SecNav's record would be scrutinized too.

Vance nodded in agreement, but didn't reply right away.

Gibbs looked at the papers from the folder. They were the documents he and Vance had signed attesting to Ziva David's moral character. The official hadn't been thrilled with her former Mossad status, even though she'd freely divulged all of her background information. Gibbs wondered if the signed exceptions to attending FLETC were in the folder too, but didn't think long pr too hard about it because Vance was focusing on Ziva's character and Gibbs' gut knew what some of the concern could be about.

The Director admitted, "She's an American citizen living in Israel. SecNav is concerned that she was never officially debriefed in an exit interview."

With a bad taste in his mouth, Gibbs reminded Vance, "Four security clearance investigations, Leon. The third one started on the day I sat right here while you talked to Eli on the phone."

Vance smiled at the memory of Eli irate at Gibbs and Gibbs chomping on an apple.

"I remember."

Gibbs reminded Vance, "The last investigation was completed long before she took her citizenship oath."

Maintaining a security clearance is serious business and yes, Ziva should have had an exit interview with reminders about what she can talk about and what she can't but Gibbs knew her starting over didn't include betraying her adopted country.

"She took her citizenship and NCIS oaths seriously. Ziva's not going to talk about things that happened on the job."

"I don't think she will either. SecNav doesn't know her like we do and there's the concern that someone who knows about her former job status will take her to extract information."

Gibbs knew Ziva would never give up information of any kind, but he also knew, and Vance knew, and even Ziva knew, that nobody can hold out forever. The best way to keep her safe was to keep tabs on her, but none of them knew exactly where she was.

Gibbs laid the papers back on the desk in front of Vance. "Mossad have eyes on her?"

Both men knew that Mossad would not want her tortured for information either.

"Orli won't confirm that they are watching an American citizen, but yeah, I think so."

Neither man knew if Ziva would ever come back to the United States or if she would give up her US citizenship, but they couldn't dwell on it for too long. There was a terrorist named Benham Parsa to find.

The End

* * *

Orli Elbaz - replaced Eli David as Director of Mossad

Sarah Porter, - replaced Clayton Jarvis as Secretary of The Navy

Disclaimer: I don't know all the ins and outs of becoming an American citizen or leaving a job with a top-secret security clearance.

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Thanks for reading. Please review.


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